Someone commented, yesterday, that things seemed to be moving awfully fast in our move to Glasgow, and we had to think … and to look back at email … and then to realize: we’ve only known that we’re going since 12-July-2007. That’s 20 days ago, at around this time of morning, actually, and since then our lives have exploded.
In order to prepare a house to rent, you have to SHOULD take care of any little problems before the new tenants move in. So, since the last thing we’d been waiting on was the bathroom, we needed to at least tackle the problem area: the bathtub surround. You see, we’d had some persistent mold problems around the base of the surround, and were told that the stubborn mold must be coming from somewhere, so we needed to tear out the surround. We wanted to do this in any event, because we needed to make sure that the tub was well-seated and not leaking (because of some damage we’d seen to the kitchen ceiling, below it)
So, in the midst of packing (that first picture was the view from our front door, as of yesterday), we tore out the bathtub surround. And the green-board from around it, down to the studs. We discovered mold, and some very shoddy plumbing work: you’ll note the burns where they soldered the pipes in place without anything to protect the drywall. We’re amazed, actually, because everything seems to be in good shape – and the handy-man agrees, thankfully.
So, in 20 days, we’ve packed up our entire house (well, everything that’s not being taken with us on the airplane or being sold / gifted), we’ve torn out our bathroom, and we’ve been frantically trying to order our lives. We’ll be a bit more balanced and free after the next week or so, because today we drive from near San Francisco down to Los Angeles, to visit the Consulate in the morning and then to attend a conference over the weekend. After that, D. teaches a class in Sacramento for three days while T. revises a few pages in her latest manuscript before sending it on to the editor. THEN we can sit back and wonder at our lives.
Our poor garden may get some attention at that point. Perhaps D’s camera will be back from its second trip to the repair shop. We’ll purchase a knife (as we’ve packed each and every single one of them), perhaps some Violin music (again, packed). Perhaps the Chaos will take a breather … or not.
Down the swift dark stream you go
Back to lands you once did know!
Leave the halls and caverns deep,
Leave the northern mountains steep,
Where the forest wide and dim
Stoops in shadow grey and grim!
Float beyond the world of trees
Out into the whispering breeze,
Past the rushes, past the reeds,
Past the marsh’s waving weeds,
Through the mist that riseth white
Up from mere and pool at night!
Follow, follow stars that leap
Up the heavens cold and steep;
Turn when dawn comes over land,
Over rapid, over sand,
South away! and South away!
Seek the sunlight and the day,
Back to pasture, back to mead,
Where the kine and oxen feed!
Back to gardens on the hills
Where the berry swells and fills
Under sunlight, under day!
South away! and South away!
Down the swift dark stream you go
Back to lands you once did know!J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
– D & T
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